Marianna Wickman

Value that Design can bring in daily lives is significant and multifaceted, encompassing both tangible and intangible benefits. ➡ Thoughtful design can enhance accessibility, safety, comfort, and aesthetics, making cities more livable and enjoyable places to inhabit. ➡ Design can promote social inclusion and equity by ensuring that urban spaces are accessible and welcoming to people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds. ➡ Vibrant and well-designed urban environments can stimulate economic activity by creating attractive destinations for shopping, dining, entertainment, and cultural experiences. e.g. Dubai, Singapore ➡ Designing cities with sustainability in mind can help reduce environmental impact, mitigate climate change, and improve resilience to natural disasters. ➡ Designing walkable neighborhoods, providing green spaces, and prioritizing active transportation modes can encourage healthier lifestyles and reduce the prevalence of chronic diseases. ➡ Design can help preserve and celebrate a city's cultural heritage and identity by integrating historic landmarks, cultural institutions, public art, and traditional architectural styles into the urban fabric ➡ Design thinking approaches, co-design processes, and participatory design methods engage communities in shaping the future of their cities and generating innovative solutions to complex urban challenges. ➡ Well-designed public spaces serve as gathering places for social interaction, cultural exchange, and civic participation, strengthening the social fabric of cities. ➡ Design-driven placemaking initiatives and urban regeneration projects enhance the attractiveness and competitiveness of cities on a global scale, driving economic prosperity and prosperity. #designlife https://lnkd.in/g65yb6jP

26

4 Comments

Had to share this thoughtful article about the conflicting feelings we have as designers with new AI tools.... made me consider the threat of too much standardization over innovation, or letting your own creative instincts atrophy. Check it out and lmk your thoughts

6

This HBR piece on "The Art of Asking Smarter Questions" struck a chord with my approach to design leadership. It echoes the Six Thinking Hats method, emphasizing structured thinking and diverse viewpoints. In design, asking the right questions fuels breakthroughs. How do you leverage inquiry in your work? #DesignThinking #Innovation #SixThinkingHats #Leadership https://lnkd.in/ettHPN4c

13

When Dropbox shifted to #VirtualFirst, my Design team helped lead the efforts to create the new model in a way that actually reimagined modern work. By applying a human centered design approach to build Virtual First—understand what users need, develop hypotheses, design and pilot solutions, observe results and iterate— what we saw as a result was true cultural transformation. This way of working is intentionally designed to make space for creativity, tinkering and deep work, while also reserving time for synchronous collaboration and IRL time when we need it. Through this process, we quickly realized there was a need for more conversation around the unique challenges of working in distributed ways. That’s how we came up with the idea for Remotely Curious—a podcast where we dive deep into the world of remote work and the struggles that come with it. One of my favorite episodes is on the topic of setting boundaries, an art that can take practice while working remotely. It’s something we’re laser focused on here at Dropbox—83% of employees feel successful in designing their own work schedules, but we know our employees want continued support around boundary setting between their work and personal lives as we continue in our Virtual First journey. Psychologist, professor, and best-selling author Andrea Bonior joined Remotely Curious to guide us through the specifics of setting boundaries in the workplace. One lesson that really stuck with me from the conversation was the idea that "clarity is kindness." It’s easy to fall into the trap of people-pleasing, where we start equating saying “yes” as being nice and saying “no” as being “difficult” or creating an uncomfortable environment. But clarity—being clear about your limits and expectations—is actually one of the kindest things you can do for yourself and your team. As leaders in a distributed environment, this is incredibly important to maintaining balance and remaining in control of our work. Creating healthy boundaries in my life enables me to be both a better leader for my team, and a better father and equal contributor at home. By being intentional in supporting myself as well as having a support system, or a “Team Alastair” around me, I can maintain better balance so that I can be the best version of myself, maintain peak-level performance and continue to scale both professionally and personally. I highly recommend giving this one a listen, and would love to hear your thoughts. https://lnkd.in/dn8As9zG #productivity #innovation #futureofwork

94

1 Comment

It was hastily scribbled, on a whiteboard, in only three words: simple, fun, makes a statement. David Lee and I often work closely together on design, and this time was no different. Having a set of principles to guide our direction and decision-making is a helpful framework to have at the beginning of new creative endeavors for key stakeholders and for those who’ll be executing on the project. For PlayOS (the OS behind Nex Playground), it was perhaps even more important to do, for various reasons. 1️⃣ There had been a few attempts already at developing a quick and dirty game-launcher UI prototype that didn’t quite have the potential to inspire what we’d want to ship with. We needed a fresh direction. 2️⃣ We were betting all of our future on this product. We expected lots of excitement and feedback from the entire company. But many team members aren’t accustomed to evaluating or commenting on creative work. And it was important to have their feedback. With these principles, they have a better chance at understanding the decision-making behind the designs they’re seeing, and then providing effective feedback for the team. 3️⃣ We had a distributed team working on this project, some of which included consultants. Having them clearly understand the goals would help them more quickly get up to speed, while also providing a benchmark to guide their own decision-making at the tactical level. One of those three principles, “Make a statement”, was tricky because it’s a bit ambiguous. Generally speaking, it meant that we wanted the interface to stand out from other similar interfaces in a positive way. But never did I expect that phrase—“make a statement”—would amount to winning an award. 🏆 I’m happy to announce PlayOS was awarded a prestigious Red Dot award for interface design. 🏆 It’s a rarity to achieve an interface design award, with approximately 3% of all Red Dot winners being awarded for this category, since it was first introduced (2011). So not only is the industrial design for Nex Playground award-winning—having won in the Product Design category earlier in the year—its interface design is now among elite company, too. I’m humbled and thankful to everyone who contributed to this very special product and couldn’t be happier at the result of all your hard work. I can’t wait to continue bringing great things out into the world with so many great teammates: Jonathan Mak Brady Tuazon Marc Aaron Casupanan Kenny S.F. Mak Tony Sung Jackson Fok Miranda Lau P. K. Chan Lana Melkumova Roman Kivalin Dmitrii Paskov Aleksei Gorkov Eugene Gubin Daria Ershova Olga Shreiber Ekaterina Selivanova Egor Denezhkin Denis Kluchnikov Ivan Vdovitsa, Mercury Development, LLC Jim Chim Ching Wee Sze Oursky Viktor Makaryev, Maxim Smirnov, Stanislav Martynyuk, Irina Martynova, Semyon Minyushov, Nikolai Taran, Aleksey Kapustyanenko, Alexander Sharov, Sergey Ofitserov, Yuhao Li, Chiu, Deng Weihao, Dobby, Guo Chun Bin, Michael Chen, Jonas Zeng, Ken Chan, and many more.

109

16 Comments

The simple shift from weakness-based product strategy to strengths-based can be a game changer for the trajectory of your product.

10

Have you ever struggled to give effective feedback? I'll give you a tip on how to do it, on today's episode of The Best Advice Show, hosted by the delightful Zak Rosen.) Take a listen and let me know what you think. And don't forget to follow the pod for more great life/work/everything advice. https://lnkd.in/eauDAgtZ

20

1 Comment

We are on the cusp of a creative renaissance. New products, services, and communities powered by builders who want work, life, and impact on their terms. The facts. ✅ When surveyed, 63% of tech workers laid off in 2023, went on to launch a thing ✅ GenAI and Builder tech have made it easy and cheap to test and launch a thing ✅ Life now imitates art; major brands launch campaigns the replicate the look, feel, and tone of social (TikTok, IG, etc.) The so what. 🌟 Your past is your prologue. The layoff, the deal you lost, the failed business. Those are the no’s that will launch your next yes. #innovation #growth #resilience

37

7 Comments

Incredible!🤯 I fed my site, opendesigndocs.com, to Google‘s NotebookLM and had it generate a podcast about it. It took the context of the site and created a surprising amount of relevant content that sounds quite natural. Why is Google not advertising this! Take a listen: https://lnkd.in/gDQxxBCJ I imagine the next step would be to add different voices, tone, etc.

85

9 Comments

AI is the buzzword of the day, but it's simply the next step in our technology evolution. Evolving generative AI interactions are repeating human-computer interaction history. Remember those green screens and books filled with computer prompts, or learning how to use a search engine? Perhaps you do, maybe you don't, but either way AI has modified the way we do this by using natural language! #AI #technologyevolution #naturalanguageprocessing

6

Designers take note- it's not good enough to simply design great UX, we also need to deeply understand the technology its built on. Good design is: 1. In support of the business model — of course. 2. Leverages strategic technology bets the company is placing — wait, what? Mercedes rejected Apple's next-gen CarPlay because it didn’t fit the company's strategic software and compute architecture shifts. This example underscores a crucial point: what does a new technology architecture enable for the user experience that wasn't possible before?  Takeaway: Understanding the technology is essential for creating differentiated experiences. Mastery of the underlying technology can transform commodified design into great, innovative user experiences that leverage the investment your company is making. Agree or disagree?  https://lnkd.in/gQyvTY2Z #AutomotiveUX #UserExperienceDesign #HumanMachineInterface #SoftwareDefinedVehicles #TechInDesign

412

49 Comments

Seeing into the Unforeseen Future: The Power of Prototyping... I recently read an article that reinforced a core belief I hold—never walk into a meeting without a prototype. The piece, “IDEO’s Secret to Designing the Future? Hint: It’s always prototyping” by Jason Wilkins, couldn't have come at a better time for me. At IDEO, they emphasize making things tangible early on—whether it’s for solving a problem, learning and testing, or proving that something previously thought impossible can be achieved. This approach not only reduces risk but also brings the future into focus, helping teams to visualize and believe in it. This philosophy aligns with my own experience: prototyping isn’t just about creating a product; it’s about exploring possibilities, sparking conversations, and telling compelling stories that inspire belief in what’s possible. It’s a reminder that even when designing for a future we haven't seen yet, the act of making can guide us toward innovative solutions. If you’re facing a challenge or trying to envision something new, consider starting with a prototype, no matter how rough or simple. It might just be the key to unlocking the next big idea. #DesignThinking https://lnkd.in/gRpQD4Eu

9

I often think about pivotal moments that shaped my career as a user researcher and entrepreneur. A particularly memorable experience occurred during my time at Zillow. It was a conversation that radically changed my understanding of my role in research reporting. I discovered that my practice of including recommendations in reports—something I never, ever thought twice about—was not as common as I had assumed. This realization was a complete wake-up call! Coming into research from design, going beyond beyond basic data collection was second nature to me. In this conversation, I learned that this was not the standard approach for all researchers. I can honestly say I was floored. Fast forward about seven years, it's clear that applied research has reached new highs and lows. On the high side, it's morphed from basic data collection to a crucial innovation and improvement driver. The field has substantially grown, not just in the number of researchers, variety of tools, and educational resources available, but in the expectations placed upon us. I’ve been conducting research consistently for 12 years through ups and downs in the economy, layoffs, Covid, and more. IMO today’s stakeholders are not just looking for data; they seek recommendations that can drive decisions and expedite action. This evolution underscores the need for our field to level up. Here’s why leveling up is crucial: > Moving Beyond Observation: By including thoughtful recommendations, we transition from passive observers to active influencers, capable of shaping strategy and vision. > Driving Decision-Making: Stakeholders rely on us for more than data, but for strategic guidance and clear directions that inform pivotal decisions. > Fostering Collaboration: When recommendations are part of our deliverables, we promote dialogue and teamwork, which are essential for nurturing a culture of innovation. > Elevating Impact: Our work does more than inform; it has the power to transform by influencing actions and outcomes significantly. I urge all researchers to integrate recommendations in their reporting. I organize them into two buckets: short-term recommendations and long-term considerations. This approach inspires dialog and action to drive meaningful change. By elevating our contributions, we can not only meet but exceed the growing expectations of our field and our stakeholders. #ux #uxr #userresearch #uxresearch #curiositytank image from freepik

30

8 Comments

I’ve been thinking a lot about how we might charge for “service as a software” products in the future. I predict packaging and pricing for these products to actually start looking a lot more like how we charge for human labor — T&M, consulting fees, maybe eventually even some version of a regular salary based on complexity of computation or job to be done. Curious to know your thoughts. #ai #design #productmanagement #business #strategy

12

15 Comments

POST 3 OF 3: Last chance for established design leaders impacted by a recent layoff or job separation to take advantage of this offer! 3 sponsored seats are available for my next DESIGN LEADERSHIP AT SCALE Director+ (DLSD) online course coming up November 11-21. Here are the deets: I'm partnering with Silke Bochat and Wix Studio, the end-to-end web platform for agencies and enterprises, to #payforward by sponsoring* ➔ 3 SEATS ➔ DESIGN LEADERSHIP AT SCALE Director+ (DLSD) online course ➔ For whom: Design Director, Sr Design Manager or Design Program Manager who have been recently impacted by a Layoff This is Post 2 of a series of 3 ➔ For each post we'll draw one beneficiary to receive a sponsored seat Interested? Before midnight US CDT today... → Repost this post → Add a comment under this post with "I am interested" DESIGN LEADERSHIP AT SCALE Director+ is an online course for established design leaders positioning themselves for future executive roles and career advancement: → Dates: Nov 11-21, 2024 → 2-week session, roughly 18-20 hour total time commitment → All sessions are recorded → including: live zoom discussions, breakout sessions, activities, asynchronous readings, video lectures, lightweight projects What you will learn: • Identify core leadership qualities & superpowers • Map your org & key cross-functional relationships • Learn the signals of mature design orgs • Measure & articulate the value of design • Increase your impact & influence across the enterprise One of the highlights? Fireside Chats with top executive design leaders. In the Q4 Cohort our guests will be Kristin Skinner, Bob Baxley, Kevin Bethune, and Jenna Date! More information about the DLSD course: https://bit.ly/3wqqt32 We are so excited about this news and hope you will join us and help us spread the word! *2 seats sponsored by Silke Bochat in collaboration with Wix Studio, 1 seat sponsored by Doug Powell #payfwd #wixstudiopartner

28

14 Comments

At this year’s Dropbox Design Summit, we dove deeper into what blank space means to us as designers, and what it means for our vision at Dropbox overall. Embracing the blank space allows us to be bold, focus on our foundations, and lean into our innate desire for tinkering and making—ultimately, enabling us to design a more enlightened way of working. The idea of embracing blank space has been a part of our story at Dropbox since its inception. More recently when we created our #VirtualFirst model, the landscape of work at the time was, in fact, a blank space. With design at the center, we had the opportunity to completely reinvent how and where we work, taking the blank space and creating something entirely our own. Though we work primarily in a remote fashion, we know coming together in person boosts our innovation, creativity and connection to each other. And as designers, we feed off the creative energy of others. There is no substitute for that. Our annual Dropbox Design Summit is a jolt of inspiration, and a meaningful moment of culture building and collaboration together in-person. This gathering has had a profound effect on our teams, and we’re continuously reinforcing what we learned together in our everyday work and encouraging our teams to embrace the blank space. This refreshed outlook is a result of coming together in an intentional way, or as we call it, our art of gathering. We shared more about this year’s Design Summit on our Design Blog. https://lnkd.in/dn9fwC2j

90

12 Comments

In this political season, we are reminded that every vote counts, and every vote must be counted. That applies to South by Southwest too! If you are a designer working in a large organization or on enterprise digital products, arguably the biggest conundrum facing our industry today lies in this question: does Enterprise Software require design to fit into a factory model, forever closing the door on Innovation? Or will our focus on empathy and human-centricity be a force for positive change in a sea of sameness? If you want to hear a unique perspective on this challenge, please vote for my panel, "Enterprise Digital Products: The Death of Design Innovation?". I will be joined by some truly amazing creative leaders, where we will candidly discuss how to lead Design teams in the creation of enterprise digital products. My panel will include... ...Barry Fiske, CXO Americas at Merkle (and co-host of #whatbubblesup), ...Valerie Vacante, VP, Solutions Innovation, dentsu, ...and Sara Alloy, Head of Design for CoreAI at Publicis Sapient. We will explore the benefits, challenges, myths, legends, and inconvenient truths of Designing for the Enterprise. So if you want to see us onstage, we'd appreciate your vote! (I'm Phil Golub, and I approve this message...) WongDoody Infosys P.S. - WongDoody has a bunch of great submissions. Vote us all in while you're at it!! https://lnkd.in/epA-aqcB

20

4 Comments

So immensely proud of such an amazing group of people who've been working so hard on this big set of launches at Figma for #Config2024. ICYMI what we launched today, this blog post recap covers it well: https://lnkd.in/gX3KSWj3 I wanted to share a couple fun tweets from a few of the fantastic designers/leaders that worked on some of the things you may have seen in our keynote this morning. * This is not even close to an exhaustive list of those who worked on today's launches, but just a quick lil glimpse showcasing a few who happened to post about them today (also linkedin obscures the links for some reason, but they're all just fun behind the scenes tweets not shady sites I promise lol): Figma Slides - Keeyen Y.: https://lnkd.in/gmxBH3wq - Mihika Kapoor: https://lnkd.in/gr54Upnu - Natasha T. / Ryan Reid: https://lnkd.in/gd-v9gE3 Redesigned Figma (UI3) - Ryhan Hassan: https://lnkd.in/g868XAze (can't wait to watch the behind the scenes talk with him and Joel Miller and KC Oh as well as Wayne Sun's when they come online later) - Tim Van Damme: https://lnkd.in/gQyvqzYr - Nikolas Klein: https://lnkd.in/ge_kKyvD Figma AI - Jordan Singer: https://lnkd.in/gXmFeXTM - Oscar Dumlao: https://lnkd.in/gkACVY_c - Marco Cornacchia: https://lnkd.in/gMt3BvVY - Vincent van der Meulen: https://lnkd.in/gCrHvcVu - Jediah Katz: https://lnkd.in/gMxEu7i8 - Giorgio Caviglia: https://lnkd.in/gCNVQrKC And more: - Jenny Wen (pages design by rocky chen ✌️): https://lnkd.in/gd_6RHAv - Soundharya Muthukrishnan: https://lnkd.in/gsnibt-j - Daniel Destefanis: https://lnkd.in/gu6mYBe6 - Becca Ramos: https://lnkd.in/gqM7RGKQ We hope you enjoy these updates, and excited to meet more of the amazing community at Config for Day 2 tomorrow! I'm particularly excited for Marcin Wichary's talk tomorrow at 3:40 https://lnkd.in/gvJNNerg

88

5 Comments

We secured $770k in design salaries in our first month operating in the US 🎉 We placed exceptional: • Product Design Director in California • Two Senior Product Designers in Oregon and North Carolina • Senior Product Designer in London Some of these searches started before July, but last month was when all the offers were finally signed. I could not be more excited with the results! Shoutout to the most design-savvy and caring recruitment team at Hirey | Design Recruiters 🖤 Looking back all I can say is that: Last year was D-E-V-A-S-T-A-T-I-N-G. I believe many of you experienced the same. I was full of self-doubt and nagging thoughts: "Will what I do ever be needed again?" “Maybe it’s time to shut down and go back in-house?” “Am I just a good IC, but not a business owner?” Now, everyone says the market is picking up, and autumn should be fruitful in hiring. Fingers crossed! But we’re ready to face any challenges that come our way. To all small business owners who’ve made it through hard times without losing the team: I believe now we can do anything! #hiring #recruitment #entrepreneurship #motivation #community #design

344

55 Comments